A prior art elevator provided with automatic sliding doors. This kind of elevator incorporates a car directed to move on a vertical path in a shaft. The car contains a first door opening and a car door. The car door is a sliding door that opens and closes the first door opening. The car further contains a car door operator on the top edge of the door opening for opening and closing the sliding door. The door operator contains a drive motor and a first connecting element. The car further contains a car sill, in which is a car door guide for controlling the movement of the car door, in which car sill is a first front edge. The car further contains a footguard, which extends downwards essentially vertically from the front edge of the car sill.
The car is arranged to stop at the landings, at the points of which on each landing is a second door opening and a landing door, which is a sliding door that opens and closes the second door opening. The landing has landing sill, in which is a landing door guide for guiding the movement of the landing door, and a second front edge, which can be brought opposite and essentially to the same horizontal level as the first front edge of the car sill when the car is at a landing. On the landing is a landing door operator in the top part of the second door opening. The landing door operator contains a second connecting element, which extends in the horizontal direction over the second front edge of the landing sill into the aforementioned space in the shaft such that when the first and the second connecting elements are opposite each other the first connecting element and the second connecting element can be connected to each other for moving the landing door by means of the drive motor of the car door.
A problem with prior art in elevators provided with automatic sliding doors is that owing to the second connecting elements it is normally necessary to arrange the gap between the first front edge of the car sill and the second front edge of the landing sill to be in the order of magnitude of approx. 30 mm in size. This causes many problems. Especially in hospitals a wide gap is a drawback to moving patients' beds, drip-feed bottles and carts equipped with small wheels over the gap. Crossing the gap with an appliance that has small wheels causes unpleasant vibration, which can be life threatening to surgical patients. In homes for senior citizens the gap hampers the passage of old people with Zimmer frames. Small shoes, shoelaces and narrow high heels can get stuck in the gap. Keys and other small objects can drop into the elevator shaft via the gap.